Girls couldn’t do math until suddenly they were outperforming boys. I’m not so sure it’s an innate lack of ability in many (most?) cases–possibly pedagogical issues….

I was not hot on arithmetic at all, but when I got to algebra and up, and had vastly better teachers–especially Mrs. Tilly–I was considerably more interested. I still went on to be an English major–I am a words person, and to get a degree from reading novels and writing about them—cool! However, the job opportunities are so limited for English majors, Garrison Keillor makes it a regular source of humor on his show! You get an English degree and do what with it–especially if you do not go on to law school as I did, and even if you do, those jobs are harder to come by than ever.

a) Calculate a square root
b) Need to know the sine of an angle
c) Calculate the integral of a function
d) Add fractions together
e) Calculate the volume of a sphere

And yet we teach, test, and measure students based on their ability to all of the above. And we wonder why students drop out or lose interest in education.

My daughter (God bless her) struggled with math from middle school onward. She’s now in a great baking/pastry program in Charleston and excelling. When I think back to all the stress and time spent trying to grasp the higher level math, I’m left wondering what the point was. Some people aren’t cut out to do certain things and that can be identified pretty early on. I can’t sing, dance, or play a musical instrument and no amount of instruction could change that. So I focus on what I can do or enjoy doing. We should do the same thing with high school students. If they don’t show an aptitude for algebra or geometry, then let them focus more on communication, arts, trade skills, etc.

Applying a cookie cutter approach to education results in a lot of wasted dough.

“State. national SAT scores drop; AP scores continue record rise” (August 25).

“Ed Week report of higher grad rate is a plus, but Rex says numbers still too low” (June 9).

“State scores on federal math tests change little, near national averages” (October 14).

“During their initial attempt last spring, 76.1 percent of South Carolina 10th-graders passed both sections of the state’s exit exam by scoring at Level 2 or higher on the test’s four achievement levels. That represented a decline from 2008’s average passing rate of 80.8 percent, the state’s highest rate ever” (November 24).

It’s also probably not accurate to say that the state superintendent of education doesn’t have a whole lot to do with improving achievement. Of course he or she isn’t solely responsible when we do well, any more than he’s solely responsible when we don’t (that’s why, in addition to achievement statistics, I included many things that Rex is undeniably solely responsible for initiating or expanding — teacher quality, innovation, online learning, public school choice).

But you also can’t really believe that schools would be improving at the rates we’ve seen over the past decade without a whole lot of state-level leadership. There’s legislation, funding decisions, teacher and administrator training, support for innovation, help for schools that aren’t doing well — a lot of things that contribute to improvement. And for the past seven years, all of the leadership has had to come from the superintendent.

In modern law, it doesn’t come up much….even dower and curtesy are pretty much passe’

Doug–being “in the software industry” doesn’t necessarily require math. Programming in Visual Basic or html doesn’t either. I do find it hard to believe that you haven’t used any algebra–I use algebra myself in real life, but not knowing exactly what you do…. My husband actually believes that calculus is not terribly useful for CS (it is useful in many types of engineering) and would prefer to use more useful forms of math.
My husband is, as I write, teaching higher (engineering-focused) math to officers at Fort Gordon. It is a very carefully edited course–the Army doesn’t waste education just for the heck of it. One of the students, who may well wash out, is having trouble with the concept of x = y – 6. This is a problem.

Most of the components of a liberal arts education do not come into direct use in the work a day world but, in my opinion, they are invaluable in in learning how to think in an effective manner.

Intelligence is not the sine qua non for an effective leader (Ronald Reagen, no intellectual, effective leader; Jimmy Carter, bright man, ineffective leader) I think that it is a factor to be considered.

One interesting point, all three of the major candidates for mayor seem to be bright people (apologies to Ms. Clark, she may well be the brightest of women, I just know nothing about her). It is interesting that a position of such limited and power would attract such a qualified stable of candidates who seem to cover the mainstream political spectrum..

Rex can’t possibly take credit for any (in my opinion cherry-picked) improvement in statistics unless he can point to SPECIFIC actions he took to cause that result.

I could easily find many other statistics that would paint a less rosy picture, particularly on the graduation rates where South Carolina has been known to fudge the numbers.

I’ll believe the statistics when I see for the first time a news release from the Department of Education that announces that scores were worse than the year before. I’ve lived in SC for 19 years and have yet to see anything except the most positive spin (and selective reporting) of results. If things were as great as the Dept. of Education has claimed they are, we wouldn’t still be at the bottom in overall performance.

And entail was what made Mr. Collins the heir to Mr. Bennett’s estate, rather than the Bennett daughters. Also, Atticus Finch had helped one of the men who wanted to lynch his client with an entail problem.

I could be a great lawyer, if the court would allow me to use literary allusion rather than having to cite boring old court cases…

As for what Rex has accomplished: If you’re not impressed that we’re at or close to national averages on NAEP (and have the nation’s best improvement in math and science), reducing the achievement gap in reading and math (to the point that it’s now smaller than the national average), dramatically improving AP performance and ACT scores even though significantly more kids are participating, and leading the nation in improving on-time graduation rates, there’s always the fact that we’re ranked first in the nation in improving teacher quality (Education Week), second in online learning (Center for Digital Education), fifth on standards and accountability (Education Week), 17th on measures of education innovation, up from 34th a year ago (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 10th in access to four-year-old programs (National Institute for Early Education Research), first in access to single-gender choices. I think that’s more than three.

I’ve worked in the software industry for 25 years and have a degree in computer science. I have not used any algebra or calculus knowledge at any point. I consider that time spent in college to be wasted. Statistics would have been more useful but not required.

The Indians have no special skills that make them better or worse than Americans in the industry. You need to look at the impact importing cheap labor from India H1B visas had on the American IT job market. That had more impact on the industry than American students supposed lack of math training.

Being good at math doesn’t make you a good programmer. And it has no bearing on your ability to communicate with customers to understand business requirements.